Politologist is not a politician

Alexander Iskandaryan – political scientist, Caucasus Institute Director

A politician and a political scientist are as different as a frog and a biologist. A political figure participates in political struggle, lines up with this or that party and tries to achieve political success. I am doing nothing of that kind. A politician figure will never make a good political scientist, even if he withdraws from political activity.

I am happy, because I am practicing a profession, that is close to my soul. If a profession brings no joy to a person, he/she is unhappy. This is particularly true when the matter concerns men. Profession is a key factor for us. If a woman can find happiness in private life, family, contact with children, setting a low value on profession, with a man it’s absolutely different.

I do not give interviews about my private life. Of course, I have a wife and the children. Thank God, everything is fine in this regard. Yet, I prefer not to talk about that in public. The only person, whom I tell, how much I love my wife, is my wife. I treat with humor any public manifestation of love, those hearts on airplanes and etc.

I read dozens of books at a time. As I am very busy, I have almost no time to read fiction. Political scientist’s life is not so simple from this point. For the past 30 years, I have been reading news 5-6 hours a day, without any holidays.

My wife says, I rest and work simultaneously. Rest is on the second place for me. A businessman does his job 24 hours a day, doesn’t he?

I take pleasure in listening to the ethnic music. I’ve got a rather huge collection of ethnic music records. I brought them from different parts of the world. It was an expensive pleasure and sometimes I was reluctant to pay so much for it. There is no need to by the records now; such music is available in the Internet.

The post-Soviet generation does not realize the true value of the Soviet art. I have recently started collecting Soviet ceramics and some other items, symbolizing the USSR, that are quite cheap … One can by a ceramic figure that will become more valuable in the near future. Beauty is visible in the antiques. Don’t think that I am buying Soviet items in order to buy a castle in future, nothing of that kind.

While I am criticized from all sides and I am considered corrupt, I am taking pleasure. That means that I’m impartial and neutral. A doctor, who likes to treat pneumonia, but does not like to treat gastric ulcer, is not a doctor. A physicist, who likes neutrons and dislikes protons, is not a physicist. I am a political scientist, who loves his profession and not this or that side, this or that political party, government or opposition.